July 13, 2011

2011-12 Women’s Golf Schedule

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina women’s golf head coach Kalen Anderson today released her team’s 2011-12 schedule that has the Gamecocks playing in the Carolinas five times in its eight regular-season tournaments. The slate includes most of the same events as last season with the addition of the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate on Hilton Head Island, S.C., this season. The schedule tees off on Sept. 11 at the Cougar Classic, and the team is aiming for a third-straight trip to the NCAA Championship, which this season will be in Franklin, Tenn.

The Gamecocks are back in the Cougar Classic at Yeamans Hall Club for the fourth time in five seasons. In their last two appearances at the event (2010 and 2008), Katie Burnett led the way. Her fourth-place finish in the 2010 edition helped the team to a fourth-place showing as well.

October 7-9 takes South Carolina back to the Tar Heel Invitational for the fourth-consecutive season, looking to improve on last season’s 11th-place finish, which was the Gamecocks’ best in the last three editions of the event. A second time in the SEC/Pac-12 Challenge has South Carolina heading to Fox Den Country Club in Knoxville, Tenn., Oct. 21-23. The inaugural event last season was played at Stanford, where the Gamecocks turned in a 15th-place effort. A trip to Wilmington, N.C., for The Landfall Tradition Oct. 28-30 closes out the fall portion of the team’s schedule.

The spring half of the docket opens up well ahead of spring in most parts of the country, but the Gamecocks will get things going Feb. 12-14 at the RedTail Golf Club in the UCF Challenge. Three Gamecocks turned in top-25 performances at the event last season, including Burnett’s eighth-place effort highlighted by a second-round 67. Samantha Swinehart also enjoyed her first time at RedTail, setting a South Carolina freshman record with a second-round 68.

The inaugural Darius Rucker Intercollegiate at the Long Cove Club injects some new life into the schedule March 2-4. The Gamecocks then head to SEC rival Georgia for the Liz Murphey Collegiate Classic March 30-April 1. One of the longest-running tournaments in women’s golf, this year marks the 40th edition of the event, which will be played at University of Georgia Golf Course. South Carolina is competing in the tournament for the 15th time. The Bryan National Collegiate in Greensboro, N.C., April 6-8 wraps up the regular-season portion of the slate.

Arkansas hosts the SEC Championship April 20-22 at the Blessings Club to kick off the 2012 postseason. A fifth-place finish at last year’s conference tournament helped to springboard the Gamecocks into their second-straight NCAA Championship appearance. Suzie Lee finished ninth in her first SEC Championship, turning in rounds of 73 each of the three days. Burnett and Katie Rose Higgins also finished in the top 25.

NCAA Regionals, held May 10-12, will take place at three sites – Penn State Golf Course (State College, Pa.), The Ohio State University Golf Club, Scarlet Course (Columbus, Ohio) and Colorado National Golf Club (Erie, Colo.). The NCAA Championship, set for May 23-26, will take place at the Vanderbilt Legends Club in Franklin, Tenn.

South Carolina faces the 2011-12 schedule with one senior (Burnett), two juniors (Amanda Strang and Meredith Swanson), three sophomores (Higgins, Lee and Swinehart) and one newcomer in Justine Dreher (Chatou, France). It marks Anderson’s fifth season at the helm, during which the Gamecocks have made three NCAA Championship appearances.